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Dylan Moron
@daynmoron
Adventure photographer based in France
Photography is part of my everyday life. It pushed me to accomplish things I wouldn’t have thought capable of doing, it brought me to places I would have never explored and met extraordinary people who helped me to become who I am today. Let me explain this long journey and where it comes from.
I started to have a crush on photography when I went to high school. I discovered the work of Theo Gosselin, a French Photographer I really admire. By his photographs, I have developed a kind of desire for freedom and to explore the wide-open natural spaces.
In December 2015, I finally bought my first camera, a Canon 7D with two lenses (18-55mm f3.5-f5.6 and a 50mm f1.8). I used this setup for 2/3 years, which helped me to learn the basics of photography. I began by shooting a lot of street photography because I was living in the city of Bordeaux. Once I became a bit more confident with my skills I started shooting portraits and that’s something I really enjoyed doing. This experience helped me going through my first job as I needed to shoot a lookbook for a clothing brand where I had to direct a model. During these first few years I have met a lot of people who were sharing the same passion. Some of them became my best friends today and they inspired me a lot through the process.
"As I couldn’t travel far at this time I started to explore my own backyard during the weekends together with some friends and it proved to me that it is not necessary to travel far to find beautiful landscapes!"
During my first trip to the Pyrenees, I discovered exactly what I was looking for few years ago… Freedom and Wide-open Natural Spaces… I still can remember being there surrounded by the mountains around this campfire having some beers with some friends, it was simple but it was everything I needed at that time. This trip brought out this love for outdoor photography and traveling – and it never went away.
I went back several times to the Pyrenees with friends and with Alex, who taught me everything I needed to know. I will forever remember this 10 days hiking trip in the Pyrenees; it definitely settled me into hiking. It was a pretty spontaneous trip where we decided to take the working van of my friend’s dad. We put a table and inflatable mattress in it to be able to live and sleep in for few days, it was crude but we really didn’t care. The goal was to spend some time away from the crowd, be in the mountains and enjoy a simple life. It still today remains one of the coolest trips I’ve ever done.
Though, it was a challenging trip to the Peak Vignemale, the highest peak in the French Pyrenees, that made me discover a brand new world and ignited a deep passion within for the combination of travel, photography, and hiking. We slept in a cave at an altitude of 3200 m, woke up by the first sun rays sneaking into the cave, and then climbed up a few meters to the summit to admire the sunrise. It was a hard climb and challenging trip overall, but after this day – I knew that I wanted to live something bigger in life. Adventure.
"In the following years, the dream of traveling to New Zealand arose until it got so strong that nothing could stop me."
After my studies, I started working and saving money with one goal in mind: make my dream come true and fly away. I arrived in October 2018, without a clear plan, but with the idea of working and buying a van, to live the amazing van life that I had seen from so many. However, this never happened. Something much more exciting happened instead.
The night I arrived, a friend sent me a blog article about a Long-Distance Hiking Trail of 3000km. As I was going through the article, I felt my heart beating like crazy and a source of energy I had never felt before was burning within me. “That’s it, this is why I came all the way to New Zealand.” Without thinking further I decided to do the ‘Te Araroa Trail’ and cross the entire country on foot. The following day I sent an email to a contact in France and asked if she would be able to sponsor me and send me some missing gears, she said yes. From there I started preparing myself and planning the adventure that was laying ahead of me.
On the 21st of December, I stood at the starting point of the trail with my backpack and camera, ready to start this long journey from Cap Reinga, the northern point of North Island, to Bluff, the southern point of South Island. And all of it would be documented.
The first weeks were incredibly challenging and I even had to stop for five days due to an injury; I twisted both my ankles. I could barely walk and my ankles doubled in size, so swollen they were. As it is not natural to walk 25 km every day, the body has to adjust so it was normal to happen. It was a period of adjustment I had to go through and after that, it was a lot easier and enjoyable. I met a lot of people from all over the world with the same objectives and passion, sharing learning, joy, adventure.
"These first weeks and the people I met really helped me define the angle of my film/documentary."
I wanted to make something authentic and not just showing the best aspects of the trail. So, once I made up my mind I started interviewing people I met on my way – I wanted the documentary to be about the experiences of the people, their reflections, their inner journey. Everyone is living the experience in a different way and it has been truly inspiring to listen to their stories.
This three-month adventure was absolutely blissful. Waking up every morning surrounded by nature and documenting the everyday life on the trail with my camera was something I couldn’t even imagine living one day. Still today I can’t fully realize what I have achieved. Today when people ask me about this adventure it is still hard to explain it with words. I often say that it is beyond explanation, you have to live that experience to really understand what it does to you.
"If I were to try to describe how it impacted me, I would mention the five “lessons” in particular. First, minimalism."
I value simplicity much more and reconsider whether I really need to buy something. After all, I lived for three months with one bag and I did perfectly fine. This relates to my second lesson: sharing. Even though you don’t have stuff in abundance, you have so much to offer. You will be surprised by how you can help people, what you can share, and that words and gestures are so much more powerful than the size or value of things. Thirdly, this has also to do with kindness. Being kind to people is probably the most important of all. It contributes an invaluable amount to the happiness of all and can really change one’s day – and it costs nothing to be kind. Even if you feel occupied by your doubts and frustrations, aren’t you feeling happier when you are kind? Aren’t your negative thoughts softened when you receive a genuine smile or see one’s appreciation of your small, helpful gesture?
This really had an influence on my photography as you are more aware of the details, which often make the difference in a photo. Because it is not always about amazing sceneries – Beauty is hiding everywhere and especially where you don’t expect it to be.
Finally, I also genuinely believe now that everything is possible. It sounds cliché and I personally never took this expression seriously. But during this journey, I realized that it is true, everything is possible. It involves a lot of effort, doubts, dedication, failure, and perseverance – but you can make it happen.
The whole trip has impacted me in so many profound ways I can hardly describe. It has made me more whole as a human being and I bring this with me in my everyday life.
"These kinds of trips aren’t over once you fly home - they have a long-term impact on who you are and how you live the rest of your life."
However, I didn’t fly home directly. I was able to stay in New Zealand for another year with a work visa which allowed me to enjoy other parts of the country. I was living and working as a barista in a café, in the South Island in the very beautiful and remote village of Lake Tekapo. You might have heard of it or saw some photos on Instagram of this giant blue lake surrounded by mountains and colorful lupins flowers during spring. It was the perfect location for me as I could go hiking and taking photos of the most beautiful places during my days off: Mount Cook National park, Mount Aspiring National Park, Fiordland National Park… The list is long.
"New Zealand definitely brought me a lot of joy into my photography career and it really helped me to deconstruct these limits I had in my head to fully take the control of my life and career."
Once I understood that, I did everything I could to take action and create opportunities. I got my work published in a magazine when I entered the “2020 Photography Contest of Wilderness Magazine”. I won the prize of “Wilderness Outdoor Photographer of the Year” and got the photo published in the magazine. Then, the editor contacted me and asked me to send through some photos which could fit the topic of the month. As a photographer, it was such an accomplishment to see my work on a magazine cover. You should have seen me when I went into the shop to grab the magazine. I was just smiling like a kid who just got a new toy.
During these 2 years in New Zealand, I was also able to do a few more photography-related jobs for different companies by reaching out by email and simply explaining what value could I bring to them. It also helped me grow my portfolio for some potential future new clients. Patience is needed, but over time, I learned some strategies to make opportunities happening.
Talking about yourself: When it comes to putting your work out there beyond social media I found out that the best way is to talk about yourself and what you are doing. Early on I was a bit shy to talk about my photography because I wasn’t too sure about my work. But, if you’re not talking about yourself, nobody will know and nobody will do it for you. So I started talking about my art and funny enough, it got me my first job.
Sending emails: A mistake I have done in the past was to wait for the clients to reach out to me. The fact is that the photography market is full of talents so, especially in the beginning, there’s a small chance that’s gonna happen. Most of the time I will enjoy a hiking weekend to do some “spec work” for a brand and then send them an email with the photos and trying to sell them a project or simply hoping to work together in the future. I make sure to personalize the email/proposal and make it all about them, not about me.
Creating a Mediakit: This has been a game-changer for me. I spent quite some time on it and it has to be updated quite often but it has been so beneficial. It allows others to know me and what I’m doing very quickly. I have my media kit available on my website and mail signature so it is as easy as possible for people to see and access it.
So if I can conclude I would say: “Just spread your talent!” Be social, be curious, show your work to anyone… You never know who will talk about you to someone else afterward. It’s a small and connected world after all.
And also, to improve my photography, feel confident about what I do, and deliver quality and something anew, I try to stay curious and never stop my inner conversations. It is really important to outstand in the market today and to try to be a difference by making myself as aware as possible about a location, a mood, and what I feel. As a result, I can find better compositions, follow the light, and stay authentic.
Inevitably, editing is an important aspect of my work. Same as in my life, I want to keep things simple and authentic so when it comes to editing my photos the most important is to keep the natural colors present in that photo. The goal here is to enhance that photo to transmit emotion through it. Music helps me in this process, putting myself in the right mood and stimulating my focus. Then I start asking myself questions… “Why did I took this photo? What was the mood? How did I feel? What is the subject? What colors are prominent? What made me choose this specific composition?” By trying to remember every single detail, I set the right direction for the editing process and I can go through it with much more vision and clarity.
"Obtaining external knowledge and inspiration has helped me a lot too."
Learning about the color theory, watching documentaries/movies, listening to podcasts to discover inspiring people and stories, reading books to stimulate imagination, doing sports for fresh energy and innovating ideas, exchanging or brainstorming with others… The challenging learning journey toward creating memorable visual content never ends, and that is the most enjoyable of it all!
Actually, the documentary I made of the Te Araroa Trail is called “Up and Down”, representing exactly the path I have traveled during that adventure, and during my young career as a photographer. Life is made of challenges that are there to make you stronger for the next to come – and I think that is how life is meant to be. Whatever you do in life, do what you love and what makes you happy. That way, every challenge is meaningful, guiding you to reach your goals and dreams.
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